Menu

Chapter 5

At this rate, I’m due to be done with my first draft of this puppy by Tuesday. Feels good to be on the edge of being done with the first phase.

Here’s Chapter 5. Whoa. I did not realize that I felt as passionate about decentralized structure until I was neck deep in this. this was a fun chapter to write. I was very interesting.

It came out like a sermon, which I write every week so it was nothing new. I did stare at a blank screen for a good little while at first, though. Until I remembered what Anna Carter Florence said was Walter Bruggemann’s advice to her on lecturing: A lecture is just like a sermon, give or take 15 minutes. I decided that I needed to approach this as if a book chapter was just like a sermon, give or take a few thousand words.

Post navigation

4 thoughts on “Chapter 5”

Good stuff, Landon. Though I may have missed it, I keep looking through these chapters for some trace of Paul’s theology of freedom. You know, the whole “love as the fulfillment of the law” schtick from Romans 13, Galatians, and sections of 1 Corinthians. As we struggle with several generations of bureaucratic accretions and cling to the clumsy-servant nature of our polity, this seems a useful reminder of a powerful “unfreezing” biblical theology. IMHO, of course.

As I see it fitting in, the strength of open-source lies in its dynamism. Open-source problem solving engages an array of multiple perspectives to, through that engagement, find solutions and new options that might not surface if a problem is approached from a single perspective or paradigm.

But folks get vested in the existing approach, to the point of allowing it to define them. The fear, be it in a secular organization or in a church, is that moving away from what has worked will result in failure.

I see in that fight against fear of systemic change a conceptual connection to Paul’s struggle against those early Christians who saw letting go of the cultic practices of first century Judaism as unacceptable. Paul was willing to cut to the core of the law, making it clear that what was happening in Christ served and fulfilled the purpose of the law…which was our relationship with God and neighbor.

Paul’s argument against structural legalism, as it is developed in Galatians in particular, but also elsewhere in his writings, seems to give a little theological kick to the whole “open-source” thing. Not sure how that fits in terms of your chapter structure, but it does seem to harmonize with the core thesis of the book.

As you’re aware, I think I spend a fair amount of page-space on acknowledging and moving on from fear, but it’s probably pretty subtle most of the time. My gut says that what you’re suggesting would be helpful, especially for those who need to see an explicit biblical precedent.

Once I wrap up chapter 6, I’ll take a look at where I might be able to weave that in. If you have any more flashes of brilliance on this topic (or others), I’d love to hear about it